Proposition 200 has created widespread confusion
among county recorders and election officials
across the state, who say they are racing the
clock to implement a key provision for the March
8 elections.

The law's restrictions are meant to prevent
undocumented immigrants from voting by requiring
proof of citizenship when registering and
requiring identification at the polls. It's the
biggest change to Arizona's election laws in two
decades.

But it has set off procedural snags for
elections officials in at least four counties -
Pima, Pinal, Navajo and Maricopa - while
creating confusion for others, who say they are
tangled in the measure's complex language and
worry that the provisions, once enforced, may
frustrate many eligible voters.

The first big test comes with municipal
elections, now only 31 days away. Officials are
at a standstill until proposed administrative
rules are ironed out. Between now and then,
those rules may have to be approved by the U.S.
Justice Department, poll workers must be trained
and hundreds of thousands of voters educated.

"Whenever election laws have changed through the
decades, it's always made the ability to vote
and cast a vote easier and easier," said Pima
County Elections Director Brad Nelson. "This is
the first time in my approximately 30 years of
doing it that we've gone 180 degrees in the
opposite direction. This is the first law that
has restricted voting."

In a Nov. 2 election day mandate, Arizona voters
passed Proposition 200 by an 11 percent margin.
It requires proof of citizenship when
registering to vote and applying for public
benefits. It also makes it a crime for public
employees to fail to report undocumented
immigrants seeking benefits to immigration
authorities.

Proposition 200's registration requirements do
not affect those already registered to vote. The
requirement to show ID at the polls does not
apply to voting by mail.

Proponents of the measure believe it will
prevent voting fraud. But some elections
officials said it could unintentionally block
the path to the polls for legitimate voters.

Birth certificates, passports and Arizona
driver's licenses issued after Oct. 1, 1996, are
among the acceptable documents that prove
citizenship when registering to vote, according
to the new law. Arizona Attorney General Terry
Goddard on Friday answered one key Proposition
200 question by issuing a legal opinion stating
that driver's licenses issued after Oct. 1,
1996, can be used to prove citizenship when
registering to vote.

Officials will examine those documents, and
driver's license numbers will be entered into a
system and matched with those of the state Motor
Vehicle Division. If they don't correspond, the
registration application is rejected and the
applicant is notified by mail.

At the polls, voters must show picture IDs with
names and current addresses, or two other forms
of ID that prove residence. Those may include a
Bureau of Indian Affairs card and the driver's
license.

One potential snafu: Driver's licenses may have
outdated addresses, and tribal cards often list
post office boxes, not home addresses, election
officials point out.

Many legitimate voters will be turned away
because they will not bring proper
identification or do not have it, said some
elections officials.

"There's quite a few questions that we're still
in limbo on," said Laurette Justman, Navajo
County recorder and president of the Arizona
Recorder's Association, which met this week to
discuss guidelines that workers can follow
during registration and voting.

"Women who get married and their name is
changed, what do we do there? The concern I have
for our Native American population . . . (is)
the majority of them use post office boxes. We
cannot accept a post office box for proof of
address. The intent of Proposition 200 was to
provide a higher level of protection against
fraud, not to make voting more difficult for
people who are legitimately entitled to vote."

According to Proposition 200, each county must
determine how to implement the law. The
Secretary of State's Office has offered advice
on implementation for poll workers. The draft
proposal was sent out to elections officials
across the state for comment. If the guidelines
become a part of the secretary of state's
procedures manual, they must be approved by
federal officials.

"I'm trying to stay on top of the drafts, " said
Gilberto Hoyos, elections director for Pinal
County.

"We're up against time. We've got (31) days to
do something. We have to come up with something
that will be suitable for all jurisdictions."